Speaker 1: Hello, puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast. Leave cow well
Speaker 1: in your blue Oyster cult puzzle ballad. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: AJ Jacobs, and let's start with a riddle. What gets
Speaker 1: fat without eating and pregnant without having sex? Do you
Speaker 1: give up? It's a rain cloud? I know, hilarious. Happens
Speaker 1: to be the oldest riddle known to humans, Babylonian riddle
Speaker 1: about four thousand years old, and trust me, it is
Speaker 1: much funnier in the ancient Babylonian A cloud pregnant with
Speaker 1: rain If you are a Mesopotamian peasant, you would be
Speaker 1: doubled over in laughter right now. I bring it up
Speaker 1: because today we are talking about riddles from around the world,
Speaker 1: and we are talking about them with our special guest,
Speaker 1: the brilliant and delightful serious exam host, Jessica Shaw. Welcome, Jessica, Hello, Aj.
Speaker 1: What a joy to be here, What a joy to
Speaker 1: have you. What is your favorite riddle of all time? Jessica.
Speaker 1: I think it's a well known one, but it's a favorite.
Speaker 1: What's black and white and red all over a sunburned zebra?
Speaker 1: That's what I was told. Yeah, no, a newspaper, Oh
Speaker 1: a newspaper. Those don't exist anymore. Plus now they're all colorful, right,
Speaker 1: an ancient Mesopotamian peasant would have enjoyed that as well. Exactly.
Speaker 1: That's getting to be about the same. All right. So riddles, Jessica,
Speaker 1: as you know, have been around for thousands of years.
Speaker 1: They're probably the most universal type of puzzle. Every culture
Speaker 1: has them, and today we're going to take a trip
Speaker 1: around the globe via riddles. Are you ready? Yes? All right, Well,
Speaker 1: I'm Jewish, you're Jewish, I believe. So how about we
Speaker 1: start with a Yiddish riddle? Are you ready? How many
Speaker 1: bagels can you eat on an empty stomach? How many
Speaker 1: bagels can you eat on an empty stomach? Something about
Speaker 1: the the Is there something about the whole? I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know. That would be actually
Speaker 1: probably more clever than what it is. It's one because
Speaker 1: after the first one, your stomach is no longer empty.
Speaker 1: So it's sort of a dad joke, or, as they
Speaker 1: say in Hebrew, an abba jokey nice that itself is
Speaker 1: a dad joke. The layers, the layers on this show meta.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move on to a Swahili riddle. I
Speaker 1: am a house without a door? What am I a
Speaker 1: house without a door? And this one I certainly didn't get,
Speaker 1: but I'll give you. I'll give you a couple of hints.
Speaker 1: This is a house with one resident. Jailhouse now, but
Speaker 1: a nice guest. That resident. The one resident breaks down
Speaker 1: the walls of the house when it gets too big.
Speaker 1: These are walls that are white. They're sort of oh,
Speaker 1: void walls like the queen bee. Yeah, you're in the
Speaker 1: right area. The resident breaks them down with its beak
Speaker 1: and something in a cocoon, and he comes out. And
Speaker 1: the resident might say, cheap, cheap, well, well, an egg,
Speaker 1: an egg? Oh good? Okay, yes, okay, I liked your bird,
Speaker 1: your portrayal of a bird a birk. Yes, I got
Speaker 1: into I really got into the method of acting on
Speaker 1: that one. Okay. Here's a Spanish riddle from the Middle Ages,
Speaker 1: and difficult you got to get in the Middle Aged mindset.
Speaker 1: I always am what speaks in all languages. It is
Speaker 1: silent when it rests, its mouth spits the poison of
Speaker 1: life or death, so it speaks in all languages. My
Speaker 1: wife Julie said she thought it was Alexa, because Alexa
Speaker 1: speaks languages but it is not. But it is love.
Speaker 1: Oh I like that, but no. And in the Middle
Speaker 1: Ages it might have been made of a feather. Now
Speaker 1: it's probably not made of a feather, more plastic pillow.
Speaker 1: As a writer, you might have it a quil. Yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: well I'll say a pen a pen Okay, perfect, absolutely,
Speaker 1: all right. Now we're wrapping up with coming back to
Speaker 1: English with a British riddle. You're ready. It is the
Speaker 1: beginning of eternity and the end of time. The beginning
Speaker 1: of eternity and the end of time. This one is
Speaker 1: a little outside the box. You gotta it's about the
Speaker 1: words themselves. Oh exactly, Jessica Shaw, you got them all
Speaker 1: with minimal hints. You well, thank you, Jessica. I we
Speaker 1: loved having you. And I think we've proved an important
Speaker 1: sociological point that every culture from every time period can
Speaker 1: be really corny. So before we wrap up, here's one
Speaker 1: extra credit riddle for all you puzzlers at home, and
Speaker 1: in honor of Jessica. It's actually from the land of Hollywood.
Speaker 1: It's from the nineteen ninety five movie Batman Forever, a
Speaker 1: classic said by Jim Carrey's Riddler character, you must have
Speaker 1: interviewed Jim Carrey too. Yeah, I love him. He made faces, sure, yes,
Speaker 1: absolutely and painted things. Oh I didn't know that cool.
Speaker 1: This ridle was actually written by New York Times puzzle
Speaker 1: master Will Schwartz, and here it is tear one off
Speaker 1: and scratch my head. What once was red is black? Instead?
Speaker 1: Tear one off and scratch my head. What once was
Speaker 1: red is black instead. Puzzlers, please don't forget to subscribe
Speaker 1: to the Puzzler podcast. I'll meet you here tomorrow for
Speaker 1: more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzling you, Hello, puzzlers.
Speaker 1: Greg Pliska back from the Puzzle Lab with the extra
Speaker 1: credit answer from our previous show. On that show, we
Speaker 1: quiz Jessica Shaw with various short that we thought she
Speaker 1: would recognize. This was the sound we played for the
Speaker 1: extra credit. That's right, I bet all of you got
Speaker 1: that one. That is the sound of the uber app
Speaker 1: when it pings you. Good puzzling and we'll see you
Speaker 1: next time.